Merilyn Simonds

Merilyn Simonds (born 1949) is an internationally acclaimed Canadian novelist, memoirist, essayist, and cultural executive whose versatile, genre-defying bibliography has established her as a major pillar of contemporary Canadian letters. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, she spent her childhood in Brazil before settling in southwestern Ontario and graduating from the University of Western Ontario. Simonds vaulted into national prominence with her 1996 creative non-fiction masterpiece, The Convict Lover: A True Story, which unearthed a hidden exchange of letters between a prisoner at the Kingston Penitentiary and a local girl; the bestseller was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, was adapted into a hit stage play, and essentially formalized the "non-fiction novel" subgenre in Canadian literature. Renowned for her intense narrative curiosity and lyrical, meticulously researched style, her multi-genre body of work spans literary novels like The Holding, travelogues like Breakfast at the Exit Café, and her critically adored biographical hybrid, Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay. Beyond her publishing career, she is a massive institutional force within the literary arts community, serving as a past chair of The Writers' Union of Canada and founding the highly successful Kingston WritersFest. She continues to garner major critical acclaim, following her previous successes by launching her highly praised book, Walking with Beth: Conversations with My Hundred-Year-Old Friend—a deeply moving, vulnerable exploration of friendship, historical resilience, and the profound art of growing older.